Pours with about a finger of foamy head. Frosts up the glass with its cold temperature, looks like very very dark coffee or a bar of 90% dark chocolate the head disappears quickly, leaving a slight amount of foam on the top of the glass and a ring of foam around the edge. Looks very refreshing.

Smells strong but not extremely deep. Mouthwatering, hard to write this review up without tasting it right away. Luckily, the smell and the taste are extremely similar. Coffee and chocolate notes blend with strong sour cherries. Delicious. The coffee is particularly strong and authentic in the smooth aftertaste.

D - Overall a worthy offering from Alley Kat, and worth a try to any coffee porter fan. Unfortunately, I have had better coffee porters and the bitterness of this offering took away from it a bit. Easily drinkable though and you could definitely toss back a couple of these in a session.

The new winter seasonal from Alley Kat, brown 341 ml bottle, from a 6 pack (shared with northyorksammy and NASH). I have really liked other coffee beers, so was excited about this one.Black in color, with reddish highlights when held up to the light. Thin tan head quickly forms then disappears. The smell is full of coffee, but not like a fresh brewed pot. Instead it is kind of like cold coffee grounds. The taste and mouthfeel is a bit thin, not a big robust flavor like some others. The coffee is there, but not overwhelming.Decent, but I still prefer Yukon and even Mill Street coffee beers ahead of this one, but better than their Smoke Porter from a couple years back.

Hitchiker from BigBrye. Fairly marginal coffee porter. The aroma was definately there, it was coffee. The carbonation was fizzy. It was brown with absolute minimal head. Thin mouthfeel, some coffee taste,a tad of chocolate flavoring, ending in sweetness. Not finishable.

I always look forward to the Alley Kat seasonals, they've been improving considerably over the years. The sight of their recent coffee porter was a curious surprise, but I've snatched up a few 6's of these since. Honestly, I have to confess that I am not a coffee drinker, nor do I enjoy coffee much at all. But this stuff is the cat's ass!

Pours out a deep opaque black, yet gives up garnet/cola highlights when held up to direct light. Tan head lasts a minute but not much longer, and recedes to a thin ring.

The smell is amazing. Like I stated above, I'm not big into coffee, but even this is appealing, and impressive to pull off. This porter does nothing but give off an intense and clean cafe au lait aroma, straight to the point.

Roasted malt and equally roasted coffee grounds in the flavour. Fairly one-dimensional, but they do a good job with that singular flavour profile. The coffee is certainly present, but not too overbearing over the malt.

The mouthfeel is medium-bodied and somewhat gritty, but carries the flavour fairly well.

In the end this is an enjoyable coffee porter, and one brewed well enough that I can easily shake off my personal bias for coffee and enjoy it for what it is, as the coffee grounds do nothing but compliment the roasted malts of this style. It's greatest attribute is the aroma however, that is really phenomenal.

About a month ago I proffered a six pack of this (among other choices) at my company's weekly Friday afternoon "let's stop working and start drinking" shindig. Like clockwork, the first six people grabbed the six bottles straight away. "Cool, coffee beer, like Buzz Beer!" Now, I liked the Drew Carey Show as much as the next young university schmuck out there, but I never imagined their homebrew being all that good. So, I thought, good, AlleyKat's most recent seasonal is appealing to the office drone masses. The next week, in a bout of atypical laziness, I procured the same. The result - there are still, to this day, 5 bottles in the office fridge. Hmmmm. Fickleness or sub-par beer? Well, I brought one home to figure this out.

Into a proper pint glass (don't get me started on the serving vessel options at the office), this coffee porter poured like a dream. The vigorous yet effortless pour did not overrun the sides of the glass (that's happened a lot lately), and produced an attractive 2-finger tan head. The aroma, pure and simple, as noted in an earlier review, was Coffee Crisp chocolate bar. I should state now that I am not a coffee drinker, unlike every single person that I know. The smell of coffee in the morning makes me queasy. However, I liked the smell of this beer, perhaps due to the fact that I inexplicably like Coffee Crisps. Anyway, this porter is dark, almost black, but more of dark cola colour when held up directly to the light, very pretty. The taste definitely has coffee in it, but is supplemented by more bitter cocoa, and a mild hop counterbalance. There is a little more carbonation than I had expected, but was still very reasonable, with a relatively smooth mouthfeel. This is one tasty beer, with a very strong flavour that would limit me to one, but in a good way; overall, a quality sipper.

Latest seasonal from Alley Kat. I was disappointed after hearing rumors of an Eisbock, it seems just about every Canadian brewer does a coffee beer. Bottle says 5% while the box says 5.2% ABV

Deep root-beer brown in colour, with a thin tan head that didn't stick around. About average looking.

Smell is a very nice balance of coffee beans and caramel. Quite sweet and roasty at the same time. Very inviting.

First impression in the mouth is the coffee. A mild roasted bean flavour. A bit of sweetness that first seems like chocolate milk and later evolves to a more rich caramel flavour as it warms. As far as coffee beers go, I'd say this has my favourite flavour.

There is a medium body to this beer, and the carbonation feels a little prickly. Smoothing out the mouthfeel would be beneficial.

Alley Kat's previous porters haven't floored me, and this one hasn't either, but I'd say it is an improvement. Worth checking out.